Taking a leaf out of the Donald Trump playbook, the Pakistanis have flown down their talkathon specialists on Kashmir straight into Washington DC to unleash some bluster during Obama’s last months in the White House and they got a public dressing down straightaway.

Representational image.

The smackdown came via Senge Sering, Director of the Gilgit-Baltistan National Congress: “You occupy one-third of Kashmir (in Pakistan), and an occupier cannot be a friend of Kashmir on the other side (in India). You have been exploiting resources in Gilgit-Baltistan, without paying royalty or compensation, a single penny for the last 70 years, I call you a thief in Gilgit-Baltistan and a thief in Gilgit-Baltistan cannot be a friend in Jammu and Kashmir,” Sering tore into the visiting Pak team.

This is even as Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif accused his military chiefs of leading the country into diplomatic isolation by failing to act against Islamist terror groups.

Nawaz Sharif’s special envoy on Kashmir Pakistan senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and Pakistan member of Parliament from Nankana Sahib Dr. Shezra Mansab Khan spoke at an almost 2 hour long session on Kashmir at an Atlantic Council event moderated by Dr Bharath Gopalaswamy.

Both the talking heads kept hammering away that Kashmir is a disputed issue, any talks with India must put Kashmir first, that Kashmiris need “azaadi” and that the Indian army’s pellet guns have hurt hundreds of innocents and sidestepped the question of how terrorists like Hafiz Saeed roam the streets of Pakistan. Timing their visit to coincide with the American preoccupation with US Elections, the Pakistan team said Obama got the Pakistan policy all wrong and offered lessons to India’s prime minister Modi from across the Atlantic.

“When you talk of peace in Kabul, you have to ensure that Kashmir is not burning,” Syed said threatening that Pakistan will not allow Kabul to remain peaceful if the US did not intervene in Kashmir.

Source From : firstpost.com